


How to say "I love you" - a reflective guide

by xl_tt



Series: Forty-three free throws [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Diving, F/M, Fluff, I Love You, Love Confessions, M/M, One Shot Collection, Other, POV Second Person, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Sakura (Cherry Blossoms), Sign Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2018-11-03 06:12:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 6,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10961346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xl_tt/pseuds/xl_tt
Summary: A collection of short stories explaining how it happens and what it takes to hear "I love you" from various basketball sweethearts. Or heartbreakers, whichever fits better.





	1. Murasakibara Atsushi - Incoherent

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first five drabbles back in November 2016. It was very relaxing to come up with, so I decided to pick it up again and write more. Here it goes. For now I have the general rating set to Teen And Up, but it will change later to Mature, I suppose. [Edit: and so in February 2018, I changed it to Mature.]
> 
> Almost all of them have a gender neutral reader. Additional notes on the details are in the respective chapters.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atsushi is definitely not a man of many words, and even the words he speaks might come out half-eaten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Details:** General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/152962385050/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you)

The weather was warm and sunny, you had a long break, and you ended up loitering at the school rooftop. Himuro was sipping on his orange juice, you were playing with Murasakibara’s hair, and Murasakibara himself was napping with his head on your lap.

“Did you know that Atsushi talks in his sleep?”

“Does he really?” You frowned, trying to decide whether Himuro was joking or not. You looked at Murasakibara’s peaceful face. “I’ve never heard anything.”

“That’s because you have to talk to him first,” Himuro explained. “Watch.”

Himuro leaned down, bringing his face right above Murasakibara’s ear.

“Atsushi,” he whispered, “is it true that you stole Liu’s mochi yesterday?”

For a moment, there was silence.

“Mnnnnyeah…”

Your jaw dropped and you stared at Himuro with wide eyes. Murasakibara didn’t open his eyes and he went back to his light snoring right after he muttered that confirmation. There was no doubt that he was asleep.

You and Himuro spent a good while asking him random, silly questions and barely keeping yourself from throwing a laughing fit every time Murasakibara gave you his mumbled, barely coherent answers. At some point, Himuro smirked at you, and…

“Atsushi, who are you in love with?”

Murasakibara wiggled in his sleep, turning onto his side. He pressed his face to your stomach and wrapped his arms around your waist, letting out one really loud snore.

“… ve you… chi… nnn…”

It was muffled by your clothes and the most incoherent so far, but there was no mistaking it - it was obvious what he just said.

Then two things happened at the same time: you gasped, and Murasakibara unhurriedly opened his eyes, only to stare blankly at Himuro before he turned his sleepily confused gaze to you.

“Mmmmmnn?” he murmured. “Why are you so red, Chibi-chin?”


	2. Kuroko Tetsuya - Awaited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You see each other face-to-face for the first time after six miserable months apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Details:** General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/152962385050/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you)

The plane landed.

Six months. Six months apart from each other. Six months of only calls, texts and skype chats. Six months of barely sleeping without embracing each other.

Six long, long, miserable months.

Kuroko was standing still in the departure hall, only his eyes moving as he looked around impatiently. He started fidgeting with his fingers after three minutes, after another five he was pacing there and back again, bumping into other people who wouldn’t realise he was there. The red rose in his hand felt wilting and he was checking on it every ten seconds. He was glancing at the big digital clock above everyone’s heads every time he made a turn, and just to make sure, he was confirming the time on his phone and watch as well.

“Tetsu!”

Kuroko whipped around with wide eyes.

There you were, marching towards him as fast as your wheeled suitcase and the bag you carried on your shoulder allowed. You were grinning and your eyes were suspiciously glimmering under your lovely eyelashes.

Kuroko started running towards you and you dropped your bag just in time before you crashed into each other, wrapping your arms around one another so tightly it was hard to breathe.

“I missed you so much,” you rasped shakily into his shoulder, rubbing your cheek on his jacket and tenderly stroking his back. Kuroko tilted his head to rest it against yours and you realised he was mumbling something incoherently. You focused all your attention on it and nearly melted when you realised what it was.

“… veyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIlo…”


	3. Hanamiya Makoto - Unambiguous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are frying in the Summer heat and Hanamiya is late. How nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Details:** General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/152962385050/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you)

You were sitting at a fountain, enjoying the light water mist carried towards you with the barely present wind. It was unbearably hot and Hanamiya was already 15 minutes late.

“Still here? Good.”

You turned your head to see the idiot looming over you with a little smirk. He sat down next to you and wiped his forehead with his shirt, giving you a nice opportunity to look at his toned stomach.

“I almost fried myself to death,” you jabbed with a deadpan face.

“I’m terribly sorry,” he drawled. He rolled his eyes. “Like I’d ever say that, idiot. I sent you a text that the bus was late, bet you didn’t check your phone.”

“I did not get any messages from you, moron,” you said. “Bet you sent it to someone else _again_.”

Hanamiya didn’t reply to that, since you were most likely right. He titled his head to the sides, making his neck let out nasty cracking sounds.

“All right, let’s go before they close. It’s damn boiling here.”

“You’re the one to talk,” you muttered, standing up. Hanamiya snorted and wrapped his arm around your shoulders and you set off.

“Hey.” Hanamiya leaned sideways to make you slightly stagger under his weight. He snickered at your whine. “I love you.”

You sighed, resigning yourself to waiting for the “like I would ever say that, idiot” that would inevitably follow any kind of statement of this sort.

You waited.

And waited.

You slowly turned your head and peeked up at Hanamiya. He was not smirking, in fact, his face was completely serious and he seemed to avoid your stare.

His ears were pink.

You grinned and bumped his shoulder back.

“Hey, idiot,” you said. “I love you, too.”


	4. Imayoshi Shōichi - Scheduled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sit back and relax while your boyfriend reads you a book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Details:** General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/152962385050/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you)

“ _At the bench Howl worked a good deal harder and faster than Michael, putting spells together in an expert but slapdash way._ ” Imayoshi turned the page and pecked the top of your head, as usual. “ _From the look on Michael’s face, most of the spells were both unusual and hard to do. But Howl would leave a spell midway and-_ ” Imayoshi trailed off, smirking at you. “Dozing off, are we? Is the book so boring, or my voice so dull?”

“Mmm?” you murmured, glancing at him up from where you were resting on his lap. “I’m comfy and warm and your voice is calming, I’m just relaxed.” Your eyes were half-lidded and you had a little smile playing on your lips.

“Really now?” Imayoshi drawled. “So you _were_ going to fall asleep and leave me hanging?”

“Hanging?” you repeated, raising your eyebrows. “You can take a nap, too.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?” you mumbled.

“Wait for the end of the chapter and you’ll see.”

“Okay…” You yawned and wriggled a little in your spot to will the sleep away.

Imayoshi resumed reading aloud, kissing your forehead every time he turned a page. By the time he reached the end of the chapter, your eyes were closed and you were breathing deeply. He rolled his eyes, put the book away, took off his glasses, and carefully moved to lay next to you and wrap his arm around your waist.

“You just couldn’t wait, could you?” He chuckled. “I would have added _I love you_ at the end there,” he whispered with amusement. 

He sighed, nuzzled the nape of your neck, and dozed off as well.


	5. Midorima Shintarō - Offered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the graduation day for the both of you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Details:** General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/152962385050/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you)

It was so difficult to comprehend that your high school days were over, and yet here you were, dressed in your uniform for probably the last time, a tube with your graduation diplomas in your hand, and melancholy tugging at your heart.

It was nearly just as unbelievable that the same exact day marked your first round year of your relationship with Midorima. How did it pass so fast? You could picture the moment he had asked you out that Summer day, all red and stuttering, grammar all forgotten and vocabulary reduced to an utter mess.

You were walking side by side, your shoulders brushing against each other; both of you were quiet and it was a comfortable, sentimental sort of silence. Takao had just run off back to the school, saying he forgot his graduation papers. You did not comment on the fact that he was hiding it behind his back the entire time.

Midorima’s lucky item for the day was a pair of scissors and he was idly playing with them. One puzzling thing was that he didn’t mention anything about your lucky item, which was something unprecedented ever since your relationship started. You figured he might have planned something for today that also had to do with that item, so you didn’t inquire about it, but as the day passed, you were getting more and more antsy.

“Midori…” you chimed when you left the school grounds. You were past the stage of calling each other by your full last names with honorifics, but not yet at the first names basis, going for nicknames instead. “Not that I’m too worried, but-”

“Your lucky item.” Midorima cleared his throat and stopped walking. You turned to him, frowning in confusion. You raised your eyebrow when he pinched a button on his uniform, raised his scissors, and snipped it off. “Is a button, nanodayo.”

You took a deep breath. It was not just any button. It was the second button from the top, the one called the closest to the heart, and the one that was generally reserved for…

That was so cheesy, so incredibly cheesy, but you couldn’t help the blush that crept up your face when you accepted the button and squeezed it in your hand.

“I- I- I-” Midorima’s ability to talk was gone and so was any colour except red from his face. “You… can call me by my- my given na-name. I… love…” he whispered, “… you.”


	6. Kise Ryōta - Allowed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You might think you are too messed up to be in a relationship, but Kise silently disagrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Slight angst. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170394461900/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v2)

It wasn’t like Kise didn’t know that your existence pulled him in like a magnet, like a black hole. He knew he could be caught in your aura permanently and nothing would be ever able to tear him away from you. There was that one thing that kept him from setting his heart free, though.

It was what you had spoken out loud when the two of you had been briefly stuck in an elevator during a blackout and filled the silence with chit-chat to keep nerves away.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to get together with me,” you said when he was talking about _his friend’s_ heart problems that totally weren’t his own. At all. “I’m so messed up that making anyone deal with that would be just too cruel. It would cancel out all the positive sides and still leave crushing baggage full of nasty shit.”

Four years had passed since then and those words never left his mind. There were signs — tiniest crumbs of hope he patiently collected overtime, drawn-out glances, that particular sadness mixed with warmth in your eyes, rare lingering touches. Little lines mumbled absent-mindedly to yourself.

Today’s afternoon Kise was helping you out with inking the pages for your newest chapter. Deadline was close and with your assistant stuck in bed with a stomach bug, you turned to Kise, already familiar with this work and always ready to effortlessly learn more.

You took a coffee break and sat on your sofa. Kise inhaled the earthy scent and closed his eyes.

“Doesn’t it make you sad?” he asked. “A whole chapter about those two finally admitting everything to each other? I know there’s a shitstorm coming in the next one already, but it’s all okay and soothing right now.”

“… of course it does,” you replied after a moment of silence. “And at the same time that’s why I draw it. I want to stuff it into that empty space I have.” You took a sip of your coffee. “Can I ask you something?”

“That’s only fair.”

“Can I cuddle with you for a bit? Even half a minute would be fine.”

Kise looked at you. He was serious, with that familiar tone of sadness and warmth in his eyes that seemed to be pouring out of you over the years and slowly seeping into him. He wordlessly opened his arms and let you snuggle into him, he stroked your hair once you hid your face in his shoulder.

“I don’t remember the last time someone hugged me,” you said. “I push people away on purpose to keep them from my mess, but I constantly miss this closeness so much. It's such a pain, I swear…”

“I love you.” Kise blinked. He should've said something like _I don’t mind cuddling you at all_. Not _this_.

“I know.” You pressed your forehead into his shoulder harder and he realised his shirt in that spot was getting damp. “And I love you, too.” You took a deep breath. “And I’m so sorry that it’s me.”

“I’m happy that it’s you,” he whispered. He hugged you tighter, ignoring how his vision went blurry. Of course. “I’m happy _because_ it's you.”


	7. Liu Wei - More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New country to live in, new chapter in your shared life — and a new language to learn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170394461900/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v2)
> 
> It has references to [this short story I wrote for Liu](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10682610/chapters/23695338), and just like that one, this one is set in early 1960's as well.

Scotland did not resemble Nagasaki at all — architecture, people, weather, lifestyle, clothes, food, language — everything was paralysingly different. That wasn’t to say that those changes from your home country weren’t welcome in the new chapter of your life (well, perhaps the weather was, you had to admit that). Everything was so forward, so direct and blunt, _so intense_ , verging on indecent for Japanese standards.

The thing that was particularly astounding was the way couples behaved out in the open: walking next to each other, what was more — holding hands, or even with one’s arm wrapped around the other’s shoulders; hugging tightly and kissing upon meeting or parting, right there, in a middle of a crowd. The first time you witnessed it, you and Liu were shocked silly to say the least.

You both decided to make use of this unexpected custom and slowly got used to holding hands in public as well. It didn’t take long: in a week’s time, you reached out for the other’s hand almost routinely, and after a month and a half you managed to lightly kiss each other for hello and goodbye, even in public.

The flat in a run-down block you shared was barely a mouse-sized space according to your fellow Chinese neighbour, but even considering that you lived there together, it was still incomparably bigger than the tiny attic room you had back in Japan. It wasn’t like you could afford anything larger yet, with Liu working at a local building company and you wiping floors and cleaning bathrooms in a nearby shopping centre.

Language was the barrier you both needed to overcome, and with a lack of proper studying books (anything you could find was for advanced levels and focusing on business or medical-related topics) you had to rely on Mrs. Chen, the aforementioned neighbour. The problem was, Mrs. Chen didn’t speak Japanese, so what she explained in Chinese to Liu, Liu then had to translate to Japanese for you to understand.

One winter evening you and Liu sat in bed, wrapped in all the blankets you had; the heating system in the building existed there mainly in name only. You set up a library card earlier that day and rented your first book. It was a small children’s book about a rabbit in a vest, with pictures and big letters. You took turns in trudging through sentence after sentence, supporting each other and sometimes laughing helplessly at words and grammar you couldn’t understand yet.

Liu shuffled a bit and pulled you closer, making you sit between his legs and lean your back onto his chest. He wrapped his arms around you, and rested his chin on top of your head. You put the book away and reached out to stroke his cheek.

“I thought today,” he began slowly, choosing each English word, “that I learn third language— I am learning? A three languages? Ah. _My_ third language.” Then he slipped back into Japanese. “And so I have comprehended that presently I am able to say to you something of the highest, utmost importance in three languages.”

He tucked aside a strand of your hair and leaned in until his lips brushed the shell of your ear.

“Wǒ Ài Nǐ,” Liu whispered. “Aishiteru aru.” He gently turned you around to face him and gave you a warm smile. “I love you.” He framed your face in his hands and kissed you softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do realise that both the Chinese and Japanese phrases Liu used are extremely avoided in real life and native speakers most of the time consider those too strong and too intense, too intimate to say out loud. That's exactly why I wrote them for him here.


	8. Mitobe Rinnosuke - Underwater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diving with Mitobe into a lake full of colourful koi? Why not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170394461900/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v2)
> 
> I wrote here descriptions for Japanese Sign Language, which is obviously different than ASL. I did my best to research it well, but please correct me if messed up.

The lake wasn’t deep and the water was amazingly clear — nothing to obscure the beautiful koi gracefully swimming between the lotus stems.

You returned to the surface to catch your breath and fix your goggles better. Mitobe appeared nearby and shook his head, sending droplets all around and utterly messing up his hair. You exchanged delighted grins and he swam closer to you.

You reached out to swipe his wet fringe off his forehead and he pouted before he shook his head again, making his black hair go back to the hilarious state. You giggled and rolled your eyes.

“You’re doing this on purpose to make me laugh, aren’t you?”

You grinned again while he stuck out his tongue at you.

Mitobe cupped your cheek in his hand and leaned in to kiss the tip of your nose. Then he grabbed your hand with his other and pulled on it lightly, signalling you to dive in.

Koi, used to human presence, swirled around and calmly away from the two of you. Mitobe pulled at your hand again to catch your stare and once you looked at him, he let go.

He straightened out his fingers and waved his hands up and down in front of his chest.

_Happy._

He turned his left hand upwards and stroked it with his right, almost the same way he often stroked your hair.

_Beautiful._

He pointed at himself, then at you, and then stroked his right fist with his left palm.

_I love you._

Mitobe smiled gently, took your hand again, and moved closer, much closer, and left a silent kiss on your lips.


	9. Mibuchi Reo - Caring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the cherry blossom viewing time and you are being absolutely doted on by Mibuchi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170394461900/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v2)

“Comfortable?”

“Very much so,” you said absent-mindedly, staring up at the clouds of cherry blossoms. “I would've sat differently if I could, though.” You patted the thick, smooth blanket spread on the Spring grass. “But I am comfortable.”

“Does your leg hurt?” Mibuchi leaned a little forward from where he was sitting in front of you to draw your attention. His long hair — a bit longer than it was back in high school — swung forward as well, framing his gorgeous face.

“No, the painkillers helped.” You pouted. “It’s so annoying, couldn’t it have happened, like, next week? Why just a day before we planned to go viewing? What a bother.”

“I would prefer if that didn’t happen at all,” Mibuchi said softly. He traced his index finger along the cast on your leg. He frowned and scratched his temple. “You almost scared me to death when I saw you falling down the stairs. Thank heavens you ended up only with a broken ankle.”

“And lots of bruises,” you muttered. There was a nasty bruise on your cheek and a whole lot more all over your body from every single time you hit one edge and surface on the staircase after another. “I got almost scared to death, too. Adding to almost dy— you know.”

“I’m sorry you got hurt. It will all heal in no time, but I really feel for you.” He threw you a half-loving, half-teasing glance under his long eyelashes. “I’m going to spoil you rotten in the meantime.” He reached out to cup your unharmed cheek and leaned in a bit more to brush his lips over the bruise on the other one.

A gust of wind swept through the park and sent hundreds of pink flowers flying and falling. A handful covered your heads and clothes and the blanket, and you couldn’t tear your eyes from how stunning Mibuchi looked with his hair adorned with pale petals.

Another stray one landed exactly on your nose and Mibuchi chuckled before gently removing the petal and blowing it off his hand. Then he started picking out the others from your shoulders.

“I’m leaving the ones in your hair for now,” he said. “You look so pretty that I’m going to fall in love all over again.”

He left a slow kiss on your forehead.

“Although I don’t think it’s possible when I love you so much already.”


	10. Imayoshi Shōichi - Sustained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imayoshi's habits are what they are - and they do include addressing you in such and such manner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Angst. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170394461900/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v2)

Imayoshi brushed his teeth, combed his hair, cleaned his glasses and put them on. Red numbers on the digital clock showed 07:39 AM when he finished preparing breakfast. He stretched and headed back to the bedroom.

“Morning, precious,” he drawled with his familiar smirk. “Breakfast’s done.”

He sat on the floor next to the bed and switched glasses on the stand to give you freshly brewed green tea.

“It’s Friday,” he murmured, closing his eyes contently. “Finally, this week’s been shit.”

He stared at your gentle smile that, as much as he didn’t like to admit it, never failed to stir something in his heart, something so hotly intense that it bordered with pain.

“I know, I know. Whiny again.”

With utmost caution, he opened a drawer, fished out a soft towel and wiped any possible dust from the urn — even though there was no dust there to speak of, not when he was cleaning it twice a day, every morning and every evening. He wiped your black engraved Ihai tablet that was standing next to it, and the frame with your photo in it. He picked another towel and treated the tabletop.

Imayoshi hid the wiping cloths back into the drawer and picked up the photo again.

He brushed your cheek with his thumb and then lifted the picture to kiss your forehead.

He felt only cold glass under his lips.

“Well, off I go. ‘til evening, precious.”

He placed your photo back on the stand and this time traced his finger along one of the patterns on the urn.

“Love ya.”

He walked out of the bedroom. The altar he left behind was so clean and meticulously taken care of that its every polished surface was reflecting the room; it was almost shining.

The very opposite to the absolute lack of shine in Imayoshi’s dulled, empty eyes.


	11. Akashi Seijūrō - Undiscovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A semi-official banquet for bigshots doesn't mean that things can't get more intense. In some ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: Mature. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. Nsfw (not explicit). [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170689987930/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v3)

Tsukiyama, Hekmatyar, Orihara, Ikari, Ōtori, Washū, Hiiragi — the lavish rooftop garden of the Akashis’ representative office building was full of bigshots that would make anyone’s skin crawl at a mere sight. But since it was only a semi-official banquet (or that was what it was called _officially_ ) with a strictly followed list of guests and it wasn’t the first such event you attended, bearing the status of Akashi Seijūrō’s betrothed, you nearly felt like a fish in water. Nothing overwhelming.

Unpretentious jazz music was being played by a hired band — some quite a famous one, you recalled — elegant refreshments were served and carried around on trays; the entire garden was filled with sweetly smelling flowers and illuminated with dozens of hand-decorated lanterns. There were even lights at the bottom of the shallow pond, laying light on the pebbles and the koi swimming among the lotus stems. Tokyo was shimmering with its night life and lights at your feet, a never-ending chaos of common mortals stretching far to the horizon.

That was where you really thrived — tastefully dressed in clothes that pretended to be modest, but which in fact were worth insanely more than sanely necessary; with immaculately styled hair, face, and nails, with the spectacular engagement ring on your finger. Listening, intently overhearing, kindly smiling, observing. Sharing your notices with your fiancé whenever he wasn’t conversing with the honourable guests.

Now, however, you were doing none of that. Neither was Akashi.

Both of you were hidden in a cleverly masked nook near the koi pond: it might have looked like a thickly growing bamboo thicket, but there was an entrance to it if you knew where to look. There were barely three or four small, finger-wide gaps between the tall stalks, enough to peek through and keep track on what was going on outside, and there was not a single lantern to light up the shelter, perfectly obscuring you from everyone.

The only requirement was to stay quiet, and with Akashi’s lips sliding tightly against yours, you could scratch that out of the list of your current problems.

Well, as long as neither of you would fall over, which was a major concern when Akashi’s pants and underwear was at his knees, you were stripped naked from waist down, one of your legs was wrapped at his hip, and you were doing something you definitely shouldn’t be doing in the middle of an officially semi-official party.

You could see the Tsukiyama CEO’s son, a beautiful young man with slightly purple hair, frowning and staring for a moment at the bamboo wall. With panic you thought that perhaps he somehow discovered you, especially when a half-shocked, half-delighted smirk appeared on his lips, but then a white-haired Miss Hekmatyar approached him and he turned his attention to her right away. He hadn’t spared a glance in your direction since.

“You will have to stay here until everyone clears out, love,” Akashi murmured softly. His hot breath, leaving his lips in short pants, was ghosting over the shell of your ear. “We can’t have you walking around so sweetly messed up, can we? That’s only for me to see.”

“We’ll have to fix your hair before you go, though,” you purred back at him before you muffled a gasp in his shoulder. “And make sure there are no stains on you.”

“That’s another point on the list of why I love you,” he replied just as quietly. He laughed soundlessly against your lips. “Although I think I’ll leave my hair as it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep. All the guests are shady af. How many of them do you recognise?


	12. Takao Kazunari - Prayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things went wrong. So, so wrong. And Takao has only himself to blame when there's a horrendous bite mark on your arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: Teen And Up. Gender neutral reader. Angst. Fluff. Mentions of severe injuries. Fucken zombies, ikr. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170689987930/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v3)

The dead were swarming outside, knocking and pushing onto the back door. They weren’t making any noises besides scratching and thumping against the metal surface in silence; something that didn’t breathe wouldn’t possibly use its voice either. They were slow, methodical in their mindless advance. Luckily for you, that door that you had found slightly ajar could only be opened from the inside. And inside was devoid of them. _Lucky_.

 _Lucky_ wasn’t what was storming inside Takao’s mind.

_Let it not be too late, please, I’m begging, please—_

Midorima was the one who could perform something like this, not him, all he did back then was holding down Miyaji’s arm with all his force and Midorima did the whole work— but Midorima was in an entirely different building, stocking up on food with the rest of the group.

_Please, please, don’t leave me, please…_

The two of you were the bait. Takao was always in the bait team — he could see all around him, after all, wasn’t that right? Then how did he make such an idiotic mistake? _How could he?_

“I’m so sorry—” he choked out. “I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, I have to do this, I’m sorry…”

You gritted your teeth and nodded, you lay down on the cold tiles and spread out your left arm, taking in quick, panicked breaths. Tears were pouring down your face, but it was Takao who was full out sobbing when he squeezed your forearm right below your elbow and raised his cleaver over his head. You bit into a bunched up pack of paper tissues you had found in the room. You closed your eyes.

The cleaver cut through the air, through skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and chipped the tile under your arm.

A wild scream ripped out of your throat. Takao cried, wailed in distress, barely able to see anything through tears. The cleaver slipped out of his sweaty fingers but he didn’t notice, frantically tying straps torn from his own shirt around your arm to stop the bleeding. The huge puddle of your blood spreading from the cut was frightening him to the core and it took all he had in him to keep working.

_Don’t leave me, please, don’t leave me, don’t leave me, not you, NOT YOU, NOT YOU, PLEASE, I’M BEGGING—_

You passed out and his heart stopped. He had done all he could already. He blocked the bleeding. The rest of your arm, bearing a horrid bite mark on the side of your hand, was laying abandoned on the floor. The same hand he used to kiss, the same fingers that used to brush through his hair and stroke his skin.

But _you were breathing_. Takao sobbed and bit into his lips harshly. He inhaled and exhaled slowly and closed his bloodshot eyes. One more deep breath and he stared ahead with determination. He lifted you up into his arms and trudged upstairs to find better shelter. Maybe a first-aid kit. _Anything._

He found a small medical kit in a break room of some office on the 3rd floor that still harboured the stench of cigarettes. He disinfected your wound and wrapped it up in clean gauze and bandages.

Now all he could do was to wait.

Hours later, when the world outside slipped into silent night and the dead ventured away, not taking you along with them, you woke up. You did. You really did. You reached out, you whispered his name. You whispered, so softly, _Kazunari_.

Takao sobbed quietly into your shoulder in indescribable relief, leaning over you and cradling you in his arms, rasping countless I-love-yous and heartfelt thank-yous into your skin.


	13. Sakurai Ryō - Muse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakurai joined an art club and asks for your help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: Teen And Up. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. Lime. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170689987930/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v3)

“Um… a bit… a bit to the left, please. Sorry.”

“All right. Like this?”

“N-no, just… just the shoulders, not, um…”

Sakurai bit into his lips. He left his sketchbook on the floor, got up, and walked up to you. His fingers were cold and shaking when he hesitantly pressed them into your bare skin and tilted you in whatever direction he meant.

Sakurai recently joined an off-university art club and as one of his first assignments, he was supposed to bring in twenty quick, half-hour sketches of model studies. Of course, being a university student, he couldn’t afford hiring a model so he nearly begged you on his knees, apologising profusely, to help him out. And now aside from your underwear, you were naked. So. Very. Naked. You were sitting on a low chair, your bare back to him but your head turned sideways; you could still watch him out of the corner of your eye. After initial ten minutes of utter blushing on both sides you got used to the situation. Sakurai was all focused on drawing and your mind was drifting around half-formed thoughts on why did you exactly agree to this.

When he was at the second sketch, you dropped a joke about becoming his muse. Then you had to backpedal and apologise, because Sakurai looked just about ready to either cry or explode, judging by the intensity of his blush and how he couldn’t stutter out a single word. Fortunately, his attention was quickly sucked back into sketching and being otherwise unaware of his surroundings.

It was at the third sketch that he had to approach you and touch your shoulders, and his cold fingers felt like he burned them raw against your warm skin. The sketchbook and pencils were laying abandoned a couple of steps behind, waiting for his return, but he found it so, _so_ difficult to both release and not release your shoulders. It was paralysing him, both from being terrified and excited, entranced by the closeness. Any previous physical contact you shared was seldom pats on the back or ruffling hair, or boop on the other’s nose at most — and all that in full clothing, obviously. Well, you also had fallen asleep on this shoulder a number of times on the bus, and he still had dreams about it sometimes.

Now he still kept his graphite-covered fingers on your shoulders, lingering way longer than necessary, and your reddened ears showed clearly that it _was_ affecting you in a way.

“Hey, Ryō…”

“Y-yes?”

You took a hold of his right hand and pulled it to your lips. Sakurai’s breath stopped when you began kissing his knuckles, one after another, then kissed his palm, his wrist— it was too much.

Before you had a chance to react, he stepped in front of you, he got down to his knees, he cupped your face and pulled you down, all in seemingly one fluid motion, he took one quick, loud breath, squeezed his eyelids shut, and squished his lips to yours, so hard that your teeth clinked against each other. It was fervent, impatient, needy, hungry, _starved_ — he inhaled sharply through his nose and his hands slid down from your face, down your neck, his thumbs made a line down your throat, then his hands trailed along your shoulders, to your sides, to your waist. He dug his fingers into your flesh and pulled you off the chair, he fell back and sat on his heels, and pulled you onto his lap.

Sakurai licked into your mouth but then broke the kiss. He hid his face in your shoulder and hugged you tightly.

“You are so much more than simply a muse,” he murmured. “I don’t think I could love _just a muse_ that much.”


	14. Kagami Taiga - Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami uses one of his talents to show you how he feels. It's super effective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170689987930/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v3)

Kagami’s speciality — besides basketball, obviously — was cooking. He also had a talent of being endearingly cheesy, and as much as he always would end up blushing hopelessly, he knew how to use it to make you smile. It was only natural that he decided to combine the two to create the cheesiest breakfast he could come up with that morning… surprisingly, without using actual cheese.

He got out of bed ridiculously early on a Saturday morning, taking extreme caution to avoid waking you up. Sparrows were chirping outside and a couple of them flew away when he cracked open the kitchen window. The sky was fresh, deep blue, cloudless, stirring happiness in his chest just by looking at it.

Kagami hummed “What a wonderful world” under his nose while he patiently looked over the frying pan and its contents, but at the same time straining his hearing to make sure you weren’t waking up just yet. Once it was ready, he moved the steaming omurice onto a plate and picked up a bottle of ketchup to start decorating it.

You opened your eyes when a hand stroking your hair gently pulled you out of your sleep.

“Rise and shine, love,” Kagami whispered with a huge grin on his face.

You barely peeked at him and giggled, turning his grin into confusion. You reached up, wiped a smudge of ketchup from his cheek, and licked it off your finger.

“Mmmnn, morning, sweetie,” you said. “Oh— _oooh_ , you’ve made breakfast already?”

The grin was back on Kagami’s face when he plopped down on the bed at your side and you pulled yourself up to a sitting position, resting your back against the headboard. He put a tray on your lap and waited eagerly for your reaction.

Kagami was an utter disaster when it came to drawing, but you knew his style and easily recognised a stripy cat and a sun — and an _I LOVE YOU_ written in English in huge, slightly crooked letters. It might have not looked all that much impressive to someone unfamiliar, but one glance was enough for you to know for sure that he did his best.

You leaned over and kissed his cheek. Kagami was beaming with pride and happiness when you dug into your breakfast and didn’t waste a moment before telling him how delicious it was.

Cheesy. Without actual cheese. And so, so, _so_ good.


	15. Murasakibara Atsushi - Goodnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's April and the water is freezing. So cold. So very, very cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Details: General Audiences. Gender neutral reader. Fluff. Angst. [On tumblr here.](http://aeteru.tumblr.com/post/170689987930/5-ways-to-say-i-love-you-v3)

The water was freezing. It didn’t take a genius to know that neither of you would be allowed to see the morning sun, but Murasakibara knew one more thing, something that made him feel like his heart was being stabbed over and over and over again.

Your body was much, much smaller than his. So much smaller that he had no doubt that you would run out of warmth way faster than he was, you would lose your temperature, your consciousness— and then—

Then he would be alone. For a while. Maybe an hour. Maybe a half. Way longer than he could ever agree to.

“Nnnn, Breadcrumbs…”

“Mmm, Atsushi?”

“’M kinda cold. Hug me more.”

“We’re almost glued to each other already, sweetie…” you said, but you did your best to snuggle to him closer.

 _Not glued_ , he thought. _Frozen. Frozen to each other._

“What do you think happened, ‘Tsushi? Why did it sink?”

“I’ve heard someone shout about an iceberg,” Murasakibara droned. Shivers were running throughout his entire body — or perhaps yours, or both, trying to warm up, but in effect losing warmth faster. “I guess ship hit it.” He rubbed your back with his thumbs and realised that he couldn’t feel his hands. “But an iceberg so far south in April is weird.”

He couldn’t feel his feet either even though he had been relentlessly waving his legs to keep your heads above the surface. And if he was in such state, then you…

Murasakibara slipped his stiff fingers between your torsos and ripped his coat open, then did the same with his blazer and his shirt.

“Atsushi, what are you— stop!” you shrieked. “Why are you— Stop, you’ll freeze—”

“Sharing,” he muttered. He pulled you to his bare chest and wrapped the halves of his coat around the both of you.“Lazy people are the best heaters.”

You couldn’t comment on how slow his heartbeat was already. Still faster than yours, probably, and you wanted to ignore that, you wanted to pretend that everything would be all right and someone would come for you and get you to safety, to warmth, to where you should be.

“Hey, Atsushi… what stars are above us?”

“Mnnn… I’d rather stare at you, Breadcrumbs.”

“Now that you said it…” You looked at him, your vision blurry from exhaustion and cold, but not impaired enough not to see his handsome face and beautiful eyes. There was frost on his eyelashes and hair. “I’ll never get enough of you, you know?” Slowly, sluggishly, you tilted your chin up and kissed him. His lips were blue from cold, _so cold_ , and chapped, but still familiar, welcoming, undeniably his. “I love you, Atsushi.”

“Yeah…” He kissed back, lingered at your lips for so long you thought he stopped breathing. He looked into your eyes and tightened his hold on you. “Let’s take a nap. I’m tired.” He sighed. “I love you, too.”

It was warm.


End file.
